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🏮 Hozuki Ichi

ほおづき市

Taito, Tokyo (Sensoji Temple) · Every year on 9 July

Summer festivalFood stalls

298 days to go
Rooms around Taito, Tokyo fill up while the festival is on.

The Shimanrokusennichi Hozuki Market (Chinese lantern plant market) is held on July 9 and 10 at Senso Temple in Taito Ward, Tokyo. About 100 stalls selling hozuki line the temple grounds, and the area bustles with worshippers from morning until late at night, making it a summer tradition in Asakusa. Both days are called Shimanrokusennichi, a day of merit, and it is said that visiting the temple on these days brings the same merit as 46,000 days of worship. This custom took hold in the Edo period, and from the 9th, the day before, the temple began to bustle with worshippers. The hozuki market originated in the Meiwa era (1764–72), influenced by Atago Shrine in Shiba. Hozuki was considered medicinal, and there was a folk belief that drinking the fruit in water would cure chronic illnesses; it was also used as an Obon decoration. Within the grounds, vendors in stylish attire sell hozuki, and wind chimes are also displayed. Limited to these two days, prayer talismans called kifuda (yellow tags) and raiyoke-fuda (thunder protection talismans), which began in the early Meiji era when red corn harvests were poor, are distributed.

Getting there

To Senso Temple: about 5 minutes on foot from Asakusa Station on the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line and Tobu Skytree Line, or about 7 minutes on foot from Asakusa Station on the Toei Subway Asakusa Line. By car, there are paid parking lots nearby (few spaces, expect congestion).